1. No. 15 Richmond 73, No. 2 Syracuse 69

His Spiders had upended No. 5 seed Auburn and Charles Barkley as a No. 12 seed in the 1984 tournament, then made a run to the Sweet 16—beating defending national champion Indiana and Georgia Tech along the way—as a 13 seed in 1988. But this 1991 team pulled off something really special.

The Spiders became the first No. 15 seed to win a game in the tournament when they knocked off second-seeded Syracuse, the Big East regular-season champion. “I didn’t think much about (seeding, quite frankly, nor did my players,” Tarrant says.

What he did think about was Billy Owens, the Syracuse star who averaged 23.3 points per game and would soon become the No. 3 overall pick in the NBA draft, and the rest of the physically imposing players on Jim Boeheim’s squad.

The Spiders had to do something to even the odds. “We changed defenses up,” Tarrant says. “We played some zone, played some man-to-man, played some press, played some bluff press. We changed defenses out of bounds on the side, under, after field goals, after free throws. I think we kept them off-balance.”

As Richmond built a 10-point lead through the second half, the country started paying attention. With lots of one-sided blowouts in the other games, CBS shifted its late-night audience to this upset in the making. Of course, Tarrant and his players had no idea this was happening—until CBS announcer Verne Lundquist spilled the secret after the final buzzer, that is.

“He said that by the end of the game, we think we had 25 million viewers,” Tarrant recalls with a laugh. “I said, ‘My God, if my guys knew that, they might have run off to the john with diarrhea.’ ”

They didn’t know, though, and Richmond held on for the stunning victory. The Spiders went on to lose to Temple in the second round.

2. No. 15 Norfolk State 86, No. 2 Missouri 84

March 16, 2012

Norfolk State’s starting five was unreal against the heavily favored Tigers—those five combined to shoot 60.4 percent from the field, including 62.5 from beyond the 3-point line. Three of them (Kyle O’Quinn, Chris McEachin and Pendarvis Williams) scored 20 points or more for the Spartans, and as a team they averaged an insane 1.30 points per possession for the game to knock off a Missouri squad that had been one of the season’s feel-good turnaround stories.

3. No. 13 Valparaiso 70, No. 4 Ole Miss 69

March 13, 1998

This may not have been the biggest upset as far as seeds are concerned, but it produced one of the most iconic moments—and the most perfectly executed buzzer-beating play—in tournament history. Here’s the scene: Valpo trailed the Bulldogs by two with 2.5 seconds left. From the opposite baseline, Jamie Sykes launched a 55-foot pass to Bill Jenkins, who fired off a touch pass of his own before his feet touched the ground. Bryce Drew, the coach’s son, caught the ball and drained a 3-pointer as the clock expired. The Crusaders then beat Florida State in overtime before losing to Rhode Island in the Sweet 16.

4. No. 13 Princeton 43, No. 4 UCLA 41

March 14, 1996

In the pregame layup line, the defending national champions were certainly more imposing, but Pete Carril’s Tigers slowed the tempo enough to negate that advantage. With the clock ticking under 10 seconds in a tie game, Princeton ran—what else?—a backdoor play for the go-ahead bucket. When UCLA guard Toby Bailey’s last-second shot missed, the Tigers had their highly unlikely victory against big, bad UCLA. It would be the last victory in Carril’s head-coaching career; Princeton lost to Mississippi State in the second round to send him into retirement.

5. No. 15 Lehigh 75, No. 2 Duke 70

March 16, 2012

This wasn’t an all-time great Duke team, but the Blue Devils were still a No. 2 seed and this game was played just 55 miles from Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke’s guards couldn’t contain Lehigh star C.J. McCollum, the silky shooter who poured in 30 points and helped the Mountain Hawks hold off the Blue Devils down the stretch. Despite the proximity to Duke’s campus, the crowd actually became very pro-Lehigh thanks to the thousands of North Carolina fans who stuck around after the Tar Heels’ victory against Vermont earlier that day.

Coppin State didn’t just beat its second-seeded foe; the 30-point underdogs throttled the Gamecocks down the stretch and won by 13. It was not only the first NCAA Tournament victory for Coppin State but also the first for any Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference school. The Eagles almost pulled off another shocker in the second round, but Texas came up with a steal in the final seconds to hold on for a one-point win.

7. No. 15 Santa Clara 64, No. 2 Arizona 61

March 18, 1993

Somehow, the Broncos survived a 25-0 run by Arizona—the last 14 points of the first half and the first 11 of the second—to knock off a Wildcats team that had lost just three games all season. The Broncos got a big assist from freshman guard Steve Nash, the future NBA MVP, who made six consecutive free throws down the stretch to seal the victory. Santa Clara lost to Temple in the second round.

8. No. 14 Bucknell 64, No. 3 Kansas 63

March 18, 2005

Kansas, the preseason No. 1, was 20-1 at one point during the season, but the Jayhawks had lost five of eight heading into the tournament. Bucknell, which had never won an NCAA Tournament game, took the lead on a hook shot by Chris McNaughton with 10.5 seconds left. Then the Bison held their breath as Wayne Simien’s 15-foot jump shot fell short at the buzzer. Bucknell’s win was the first for a member of the Patriot League. The Bison lost to Wisconsin in the second round.

9. No. 14 Austin Peay 68, No. 3 Illinois 67

March 12, 1987

At halftime of a tie game, ESPN analyst Dick Vitale proclaimed that, if Illinois lost to the Governors, he’d stand on his head. The Ohio Valley Conference Tournament champions built a seven-point lead in the second half but needed a pair of free throws from Tony Raye in the final seconds to clinch the victory. Within the year, Vitale visited the Clarksville, Tenn., campus and made good on his promise. In the second round, the Governors fell just three points short against Providence.

10. No. 15 Hampton 58, No. 2 Iowa State 57

March 15, 2001

The image of Hampton coach Steve Merfeld pumping his fists as he was being lifted up by Pirates player David Johnson is one that makes almost every NCAA Tournament highlight reel. Hampton, making its first appearance in the Big Dance, took the lead on a short basket in the lane by Tarvis Williams with 6.9 seconds left and then watched as Iowa State guard Jamaal Tinsley’s layup attempt rolled off the rim. Hampton lost to Georgetown in the second round.